This is an account of a multimedia assignment that seemed to be about one thing, and turned out to be about something else entirely: an exercise in civic responsibility that became a lesson in recognizing and remedying a lack of attention to diversity.
The Participants
Instructor: Susan Delagrange, Asst. Professor, The Ohio State University
Students: Mandy Brown, Lisa Athy, and Kristen Sirosky (represented in New York through their podcasts)
The Context
English 367.01: Documenting the U.S. Experience is a second-level writing course that emphasizes expository and analytical writing on “major topics pertaining to the United States.” Assignment #3 asked students to apply the work of the first part of the course toward creating their own Public Service Announcements in a digital space. The documentary subjects were chosen by the students to enhance their understanding, and their audience's understanding, of diversity. They collected research (fact-finding, interviews, original and "found" photographs and film clips, and re-creations) which they used to create 30-second public service announcements, composed in iMovie, that presented a new and interesting angle on their topic.
The Problem
The assignment clearly states that one goal of the project is "to enhance their understanding, and their audience's understanding, of diversity." The class spent time with their research partners in choosing a topic that was significant to an identity group of which they were not members. Of the students whose work is represented here, Mandy chose interracial adoption, Lisa worked on skin cancer among the elderly, and Kristen tackled low birth weight and pre-natal care. Together we developed a rubric to be used for assessing progress (through self-assessment, peer review, draft responses) and for their final reflection and my final evaluation. When the projects were nearing completion, however, I discovered that the goal of investigating and representing diversity had fallen away. Instead, my students produced PSAs that "looked like them" - young and white. What went wrong?
The Cause
It didn't take long to discover that the cause was a mismatch between the assignment and the assessment. While the assignment specified the representation of diversity as a goal, and diversity was foregrounded in the topic selection and data-collecting phases of the projects, the assessment instrument - a collaboratively designed rubric - failed to take diversity into account, either explicitly or as a rhetorical goal. One advantage of a rubric that is closely aligned with the assignment is that it serves as a second communication of the assignment's goals, one that students consult much more often that the original assignment itself. When there are gaps, as in this case, especially when the rubric becomes the go-to document,essential goals may be lost.
The Solution
For this class, the absence of attention to diversity became a learning opportunity, demonstrating how easy it is to overlook representations and audiences of non-dominant groups, and how problematic it is when we assume that everyone thinks and sees as we do. I included a diversity question in the final reflection I asked them to do and, as part of their presentations to the class, they each addressed ways in which they could have designed their projects to take diversity into account.
For future classes, I have added the category of diversity to the rubric, so that when we work together to create guidelines for excellence as they apply the rubric to their own work, they will be continuously conscious of its importance in every aspect of their communications.
This is an account of a multimedia assignment that seemed to be about one thing, and turned out to be about something else entirely: an exercise in civic responsibility that became a lesson in recognizing and remedying a lack of attention to diversity.
The Participants
Instructor: Susan Delagrange, Asst. Professor, The Ohio State University
Students: Mandy Brown, Lisa Athy, and Kristen Sirosky (represented in New York through their podcasts)
The Context
English 367.01: Documenting the U.S. Experience is a second-level writing course that emphasizes expository and analytical writing on “major topics pertaining to the United States.” Assignment #3 asked students to apply the work of the first part of the course toward creating their own Public Service Announcements in a digital space. The documentary subjects were chosen by the students to enhance their understanding, and their audience's understanding, of diversity. They collected research (fact-finding, interviews, original and "found" photographs and film clips, and re-creations) which they used to create 30-second public service announcements, composed in iMovie, that presented a new and interesting angle on their topic.
The Assignment - Documentary Project: Podcasting a Public Service Announcement
The Problem
The assignment clearly states that one goal of the project is "to enhance their understanding, and their audience's understanding, of diversity." The class spent time with their research partners in choosing a topic that was significant to an identity group of which they were not members. Of the students whose work is represented here, Mandy chose interracial adoption, Lisa worked on skin cancer among the elderly, and Kristen tackled low birth weight and pre-natal care. Together we developed a rubric to be used for assessing progress (through self-assessment, peer review, draft responses) and for their final reflection and my final evaluation. When the projects were nearing completion, however, I discovered that the goal of investigating and representing diversity had fallen away. Instead, my students produced PSAs that "looked like them" - young and white. What went wrong?
The Cause
It didn't take long to discover that the cause was a mismatch between the assignment and the assessment. While the assignment specified the representation of diversity as a goal, and diversity was foregrounded in the topic selection and data-collecting phases of the projects, the assessment instrument - a collaboratively designed rubric - failed to take diversity into account, either explicitly or as a rhetorical goal. One advantage of a rubric that is closely aligned with the assignment is that it serves as a second communication of the assignment's goals, one that students consult much more often that the original assignment itself. When there are gaps, as in this case, especially when the rubric becomes the go-to document,essential goals may be lost.
The Solution
For this class, the absence of attention to diversity became a learning opportunity, demonstrating how easy it is to overlook representations and audiences of non-dominant groups, and how problematic it is when we assume that everyone thinks and sees as we do. I included a diversity question in the final reflection I asked them to do and, as part of their presentations to the class, they each addressed ways in which they could have designed their projects to take diversity into account.
For future classes, I have added the category of diversity to the rubric, so that when we work together to create guidelines for excellence as they apply the rubric to their own work, they will be continuously conscious of its importance in every aspect of their communications.